An Attempt at Appeasement
by Anna Jaganshi
Summary: After the round against Team Masho, the team has time to recover before the next bout of fights. This time gives Kurama and Hiei a chance to ask questions, and in Hiei's case, to throw out his opinion. Kurama attempts to satisfy his underlying request. Short little thing as my way of explaining a couple things. No intended BL, unless you want to see it there. Rated T just in case.


Hey kids. Lookit, it's me~ I just got into the writing mood all of a sudden… But of course for something new, and not any of my old ideas. Or other such promises I made.

Anyway! (Totally obvious change of subject!)

Found this as a creative writing prompt on McGraw-Hill. The idea was to use the first full sentence Hiei says in this, and continue from there, while not bringing up the relationship between the characters. Thus, you may take this as friendship, BL, whatever tickles your fancy. I did try to write it without any romantic undertones, but… Well, you tell me if I succeeded or not.

Ah… admittedly, I just re-watched the series not too long ago, but I probably have events or something mixed up. My apologies. I did, however, double check that Kurama had a wound on his cheek. That will make sense why later.

**The gist:** I guess, basically, I wanted to give my own explanation as to why Hiei felt the need to scorch Zeru. It just seemed rash to me, but then, he didn't last long enough to find out his full potential, so… And I was attempting an explanation for Kurama, but I didn't flesh that out too much, really.

All disclaimers apply, and please read and enjoy! Review if the mood strikes you, for I am all about constructive criticism and would love to hear (read) what you have to say!

An Attempt at Appeasement

by

Anna Jaganshi

Hiei and Kurama were sitting in their hotel room. They had arrived not too long ago after the round against Team Masho and were finally settling down. The room was furnished modestly with two double beds, a table with four chairs, a small sitting area, and then the bathroom near the door. It was a fine place to rest after a trying day of fighting for your life… but Hiei still would have preferred being outside. He had his reasons for returning to the room, however.

Kurama had just stepped out of the bathroom after bathing, gingerly cleaning his wounds. He'd managed to remove the death plant from his body, and now all he had to do was wait patiently and heal up. _That's the worst part of it all_, the fox spirit thought glumly, toweling his hair. Glancing up, he saw Hiei sitting in one of the chairs, precariously tipped, so it rested on the two back legs with his foot keeping the balance on the windowsill. At the moment, he was staring down at his sword with a cloth in his hand—most likely for cleaning—but his hand was still, near the blade tip.

"You should take advantage of the shower while you can, Hiei," Kurama offered, motioning with one hand at the bathroom door. "I promise there's still hot water left for you," he added jokingly.

"Hn," Hiei snorted, finally beginning to move his hand again across the blade. He didn't dignify that comment with a response; he and Kurama both knew quite well that heat wasn't a problem.

Kurama chuckled at him and sat on his own double bed. Now that he was finished cleaning up he still had to dress his wounds. He'd set the first aid kit on the bed before hand, and so he set to work. The two demons sat in silence for a while.

"I don't like what you're doing," Hiei finally said, not looking at his roommate directly as he said it. He was staring out the window, eyes narrowed, but rather than taking in the scenery from their high level room, he was watching his teammate's reflection in the window. Watching as Kurama went over each scratch, rend, and tear of flesh just reminded Hiei of how close Kurama had come to losing. And not just the fights.

"And what is it I'm doing that you don't approve of?" Kurama asked mildly, though he already felt he had a pretty good idea what was on Hiei's mind. In fact, Yusuke had already confronted him on the way up to their rooms. He hadn't really expected Hiei to comment on it, though. A scathing glare or huff of annoyance, possibly, but to actually say anything? It was a bit surprising, but Kurama hid his shock by continuing to wrap his arm.

"Whether you have a masochistic streak in you or you're more stupid than you look, you're going to get killed if you continue to not protect yourself better. We can't afford to lose a team member," Hiei said, still watching the redhead in the window. He was concerned by Kurama's seeming lack of care. He understood the fox spirit was old, and this age gave him wisdom and a technique to his fighting that had obviously kept him alive this long. He didn't want to interfere with how he did things, but… Not that he wanted to show he was worried, either, hence the icy tone and borderline insult, but he still worried.

Smiling slightly, Kurama glanced up from his task—and just caught Hiei looking away from him in the window. The fire demon's gaze quickly averted down to his sword once more, where his hand had continued to move this whole time. Kurama sighed in dual amusement and exasperation before he asked, "Since when has my fighting style bothered you, Hiei?"

"We can't afford to lose a teammate," Hiei reiterated, and Kurama nodded sagely for his benefit. "There were a lot of close calls in this last round, some you could have avoided, but… Your pity and carless attitude are going to—"

"Oh, careless?" Kurama countered, starting to have fun at this point. He chose to ignore the comment on his sympathies; he already knew how _that_ conversation would go, as they'd had it before. "So you're saying I don't care if I live or die?"

"Kurama," Hiei warned, finally facing the fox-turned-human across the room with a scowl on his face. "You know exactly what I mean."

"Do I?" he returned as innocently as possible. Hiei narrowed his eyes even further. "You _truly_ think I care nothing for what happens? I have things—people—at stake here as well, Hiei."

Hiei turned toward his sword again. "Could have fooled me," he muttered darkly, but Kurama still heard him.

"So says the reckless fool audacious enough to summon the darkness flame, and in the first round no less." Kurama thought on that a moment, watching Hiei stiffen at the slide, before asking, "Was that really necessary for Zeru? He didn't seem to be that big of a threat…"

Hiei sighed, abandoning his sword to lay it on the table while somehow maintaining his tipped, balanced position on the chair. He then turned to look out the window, but not to covertly watch the fox spirit behind him this time.

Kurama was a little surprised. All that talking and _now_ Hiei was ignoring him? He raised an eyebrow before finishing wrapping his arm, tying a knot in the bandage to secure it. He packed up the first aid kit and took it with him over to the table, where he took a seat in the chair closest to the fire demon. Pointedly, he set the kit on the table. Then Kurama stared at him in what he hoped was an annoying but decidedly determined way. It took a bit, but it worked.

"Admittedly I got overly carried away," Hiei finally confessed, sighing in defeat. Kurama would have snorted, but he wanted Hiei to continue, a little bemused that he broke through. "Zeru was cocky, overly so. Kuwabara's not even that bad," Hiei conceded, albeit a tad grudgingly. "I felt the need to put him in his place… not that it was mine to do so, either. I got carried away," he repeated, staring so intently at the first aid kit that Kurama was amazed it didn't burst into flame.

Wow. Kurama was amazed Hiei had told him so much, but also pleased. "I'm not being careless, per say," Kurama said, trying to make Hiei feel better about sharing so much. "It's all a part of the fight, and it gets me to the desired outcome. My opponent is lured into a false sense of victory by seeing me injured. If I come out with a cut up face or a death plant in my arm," he continued, lifting his bandaged arm for emphasis, "at least I'm still alive. The parts can be damaged so long as the machine still runs. You can always find replacement parts."

"That's a terrible analogy," Hiei grumbled, looking him in the face. Blinking, he reached for the first aid kit and pulled out a square bandage, which he began to open. "Humans rely on technology a great deal," he said, finally allowing the chair to fall to the floor silently so he could reach Kurama's face. Carefully he placed the square bandage on the fox's left cheek. Kurama blinked. "Missed one," he commented nonchalantly before he went on, "Because of their dependency, the whole machine is duplicated and can be purchased again. Then they discontinue the parts and put out an upgraded version. So, that was a bad analogy."

"Touché," Kurama admitted, smiling slightly. "You knew exactly what I meant," he said, using Hiei's words from earlier. The fire demon rolled his eyes and returned to his previous tilted position. Sobering, Kurama added, "I will try not to be gutted in these next fights if that makes you feel better."

"Hn," but really Hiei was relieved. And he knew Kurama knew it.

So when, in Kurama's next fight, he went against Ura Urashima and made it out close to unscathed (other than falling for the disguised demon's trick—Hiei had snorted at that. _His damn human compassion…_), Hiei was satisfied. He attributed a good portion of that to the fact that Yoko made an appearance and Urashima turned into a sniveling wimp, but he was still satisfied.

He only hoped he could expect the same for the fight against Toguro's team… But he wasn't getting those hopes up too high. Knowing Kurama… Well, Hiei knew Kurama. And he knew what he said wouldn't change what was going to happen. So he silently hoped Kurama wouldn't take any chances, and then focused on his own upcoming fight.


End file.
